


Repercussions: Or Why Erik Needs to Learn That They Exist

by Rellanka



Category: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Meta, Reference to violence done in XM: DOFP, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 22:11:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1704389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Added to, edited and hopefully a meta that will give you something to think about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Repercussions: Or Why Erik Needs to Learn That They Exist

I don’t think that what Erik did in DOFP is excusable. At all. I know that some people feel sympathetic to him, and not only do they have a right to feel that way I agree that there’s probably more to his actions than what we saw on screen. But on a personal level, I can’t hold to that same sympathy. Because do you really think that any terrorist had a nice, peaceful past? I would wager to say that most terrorists become that way much for the same reason that Erik did: through suffering, pain, fear and a desire to keep their own people safe. Probably not true for all terrorists, and I’m sure every case differs, but I don’t think anyone can decide to become something like that without there being a reason behind it. So since I doubt anyone would fault me for not excusing any other terrorist, I hope you can understand where I’m coming from when I refuse to excuse Erik. 

Because a terrorist is exactly what Erik made himself in to in this movie. Not only because of what he did to Mystique but also what he did at the end. He decided that he would make the grandest gesture ever, to scare the humans, to terrify them. To make sure that they knew that Erik was the one in power, that they would have no hope against him. He used fear to try to get his way. He attacked political figures to try to gain that fear. And in the end, he put mutants in more danger than they have ever been before. 

I saw someone say that Erik has painted a target on the back of every mutant out there, and I wish I could find the post again because I couldn’t agree more. The only reason mutants aren’t being rounded up by the various governments around the world is because of Mystique’s choice to try to protect the President and the Senators. That’s probably the **only** reason. Because Erik’s little speech? His little ‘You should all definitely fear us because we are so much stronger than you, and one day we are going to rise above you and there is nothing you can do about it.’ claim? It would have worked. After seeing something like that, people would have been scared. They would have been terrified. Erik would have started something like the Sentinel future 50 years early, and he would have done it because alongside Erik’s fear is true arrogance. He truly believes that he is the one with power here, that there is no possible way that humans could ever truly overcome him or his race. If he didn’t truly believe that, he wouldn’t have made that speech.

And beyond what he did to Mystique, beyond what he did to Charles and Hank and Logan, I find Erik’s simple disregard for the repercussions of his actions to be inexcusable. I want someone sitting Erik down and explaining why the things he did were not okay. I want him forced to realize how many people he hurt with his actions; how many he might have hurt. I really want Charles to be the one doing it, but I don’t want Charles forgiving him right away. Charles has offered Erik near-instant forgiveness, and Erik didn’t **learn** a damn thing from it. While I ship them and I want them together, I don’t want that to happen again. I want Erik to work for forgiveness and to **grow** because of it. 

The thing about Erik is that he doesn’t plan on cleaning up his own messes. Often, he doesn’t even realize the kind of messes that his actions will create. We see this symbolically after he shakes the plane which tosses dishes and miscellaneous items on the floor. Wolverine asks him if he’s “Gonna clean that shit up.” and it’s so clear in that moment that Erik’s shocked; both by the mess he made and the fact that someone expects him to clean it. And yet it’s implied that he does exactly that; the plane is no longer messy the next time we see it. That moment really gave me hope for Erik. I thought that maybe, just maybe **this** is the moment that he will start realizing that there are repercussions for everything. Only to be disappointed a few minutes later. I won’t go fully in to what he did to Mystique, because I think we can all agree that it was poorly planned and executed. I will say that I disagree with even the idea behind the plan, but that’s because of an issue I’ll cover later.

Rather, I’d like to talk about the other moment that gave me hope that maybe Erik would realize how action and reaction works. This is while Erik is watching the television after Paris. He sees them picking up Mystique’s blood from the street, blood that he put there. He is aware that the government is now going to go along with the Sentinel program. He knows that he is at fault for them getting Mystique’s DNA, and he should have realized that the fear he invoked in the broad public after Paris is the reason the government agreed to the Sentinel’s. And yet he still decides that giving them more fear is the wise thing to do. 

Here I am going to address the stadium, because it is another symbolic example of Erik ignoring the mess he makes, most often because the entirety of his focus is on his end goal. It didn’t look like he was paying a **lick** of attention to where the debris falling from the stadium went. The only thing that Erik was worried about was getting the stadium where he wanted it to be. Whatever fell from it was other people’s concerns, and if they didn’t avoid it, well... I have honestly had a horrific headcanon I’ve been trying not to think about where some of that debris fell right onto where those kids were playing. I don’t want to think about that happening, but it easily could have. He didn’t seem to even realize when debris nearly crushed Charles, after all. 

Which leads me into the possibility that Erik was aware of how the debris was falling and had some control over it. But what does _that_ say about him? Erik doesn’t have the greatest history of redirecting metal to keep Charles safe, and the stone came centimeters away from Charles’s head. It would mean that he is not only willing to go to war with the humans, but that he is already willing to seriously risk Charles’s life to keep him out of the way of such a war. For obvious reasons, this isn’t a headcanon I would like to hold, but I have to acknowledge that it’s possible. In the earlier movie canon’s, Erik wasn’t exactly all that concerned with Charles’s safety, after all. In X1, he and Mystique put Charles in a coma. In X2, he and Mystique brainwashed Charles into trying to kill humanity before leaving him to die. In X3, he tried to manipulate Jean which led to the situation where Charles did die. If Erik is far gone enough to not care about Charles’s safety, I worry about where he’ll go from here. An Erik willing to sacrifice Charles Xavier is an Erik you **need** to worry about. 

What worries me most that he will wind up walking down a darker path is that at the end of the movie we see a future that seems peaceful, but that doesn’t mean that Erik isn’t still causing trouble. It means that Erik is causing trouble less successfully… most likely because Mystique seems like she’s going to be a little less willing to go along with Erik’s plans from here on out. It also means that the X-Men have been able to successfully keep up the good press/public opinion to counter Erik’s bad, something that’s been proven to work now. I don’t really want to hold to this headcanon either, but again, I had to acknowledge the possibility. We never see where Erik ends up, so we don’t know for sure what choices he made. 

I do love Erik, despite everything. I’d like to just be able to forgive him, but the writing is the character. I can’t just ignore what he’s done in this latest canon, or act like it didn’t happen. Regardless, I still have faith in this character, and hopes for him in the next movie. I truly believe that if he tries, he can learn about consequences, about what horrors his actions could bring about. Here’s hoping he makes better decisions next time. Here’s hoping he learns. 

Thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> Posted kind of spontaneously, mostly in the hopes that it will help my muse kick into high gear. I've been stuck on the first paragraph of the fic I want to base off of this for forever. I might edit the added in parts of the meta some more at a later date. Hope you enjoyed! I welcome discussion/input.


End file.
